What the Truck?

The infamous truck in Generation I, was probably my first exposure to trolling. And it was done by GameFreak. Some say it was there so you could get Mew, others said it was to get infinite MasterBalls. What did it mean in the age of Googling any answer in an instant. How did this simple little nugget of information, that there was a truck in the game, all of a sudden mean that Pokemon was much larger than I thought. Hit the jump to read more.

If you don’t know about this, let me just fill you in real quick. In the Generation I games, you could get HM01 (Cut), by going on to the SS Anne and receiving it from the Cut Master who also happened to be the captain of the ship. If you received this item, the ship would sail off and you could no longer visit this area in the game again. So how do you explore this area, filled with water? Well you trade. Trade with one of your friends, and get a Pokemon that already knows Cut. This way you don’t need to visit the Cut Master, and the ship won’t leave. Later in the game when you have Surf, you can return with your ticket and explore. And exploring lead you to a truck.

My experience with this strange addition by the folks down at GameFreak, was a long one. First I had to find out about it, that wasn’t just scrambling through forums or blogs to find. It had to come from the playground, after which it was then in a magazine, and all of a sudden everyone knew about it. Then I had to clasp my hands on someone who would be willing to trade me a Pokemon with Cut. Not as easy back then as it is today, because we were kids, we didn’t want someone else to have something that we had. But none the less, eventually I gained one. I slowly went through the game at a pace only an 7 year-old can appreciate, and then found this truck. Well what happens now? I’ll tell you some of the rumors I heard.

• Use Strength against the truck from behind and Mew will attack
• Use Strength from all sides in under a minute and Mew will attack
• Use all HM’s against the truck door and you will get a new Pokemon
• Use Strength against the truck and you will get another MasterBall each time
• After getting Mewtwo, teach it Strength and then use that against the truck and Mew will attack

The last one was the biggest waste I have ever done in my life (besides not knowing what Whirlwind does and using it against Mewtwo then saving). However it seems that no matter what trick I tried, nothing ever happened. It was a huge let down. How could it be that a truck was placed in a game to do nothing, when there really is no scenery elsewhere? It took a long time to come to terms with, and I always hoped GameFreak would never do that again to me.

Enter Fire Red and Leaf Green. GameFreak decided that they wanted to return the nostalgia to us all by leaving the truck in the game, although this time you could get a Lava Cookie. Not quiet Mew, but thanks GameFreak. Much appreciated.

Either way, looking back at how I reacted to the information of a possible surprise, or even a rare Mew Pokemon. I replayed the game from start to finish several times to check out all the possible configurations to move this truck. It made the game last much longer, added mystery and made me look further in the game, to see if I could find anything else similar. I mean, someone had to. It made me rethink about how games were, that there was actually people behind the game screwing with me. Helping me. Or just trying to make my life a little more interesting. It is probably because of things like this that made me want to pursue a career in the video game industry. Who knows. But all I know is that GameFreak utterly blew my mind…with scenery.

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Categorized under: Pokeditorials
Tagged: cheat, code, Mew, RBY, ship, SS Anne, truck

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